


Tidings of Joy and Comfort

by Destux



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 23:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destux/pseuds/Destux
Summary: Unspoken pleas of please’s—Please help me… Please don’t leave me… Please accept me… Please hug me… Please don’t hate me… It’s not much…It really isn’t. Just be there and everything will be ok. (SECRET SANTA 2019 SUBMISSION)
Relationships: Hinata Hajime/Nanami Chiaki, Kirigiri Kyoko/Naegi Makoto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Tidings of Joy and Comfort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Signel_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/gifts).



> To my recipient,
> 
> Hello! Sorry for the late submission. If you feel the delay doesn’t justify the quality of this gift then that’s ok! （╹◡╹）
> 
> If that is, indeed, the case, I just want to consider this as a personal gift to myself. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you with more useless venting.
> 
> Without further ado, I humbly beg you to accept this gift from me.

The dawn of Christmas Eve arrived, heralded by the tweeting of freezing birds and the warm orange hue flooding the small patches of grass. Just like any other day, the cold atmosphere hardly called for an energetic nor enthusiastic day; it invited one to enter a deep period of slumber – or what others call “a gamer’s hibernation”. Sleep…sleep… _just sleep the day away till you can no longer sleep…_

…as if that will ever come in the first place.

The room remained a serene and peaceful haven for Chiaki, even with how un-haven-ly it looked. Bundles of clothes were strewn about on the carpet-insulated floor to keep the scape at a moderate thermal setting. Alongside the clothes, the usual clutter of cartridges, consoles, wires and CDs added to the decoration. Oh, let’s not forget the heavy sleeper’s den. Somehow, even without Chiaki tossing and turning like a crocodile’s special attack, the two layers of bed sheets seemed to have flown off the bed, all crumpled and rolled up. The thin blanket tried in vain to cover the loosely clothed gamer but its warmth only entangled itself across her stomach.

Mmm, yeah. Things were going fine, all things considered…

…Actually…hmm.

_No, they’re not… I think._

Chiaki jolted her eyes open and looked around the musty discordance of a room as the cold started to register for her skin. Sitting up to lean her back against the wall, she curled up into a ball and shakily hugged herself while still searching for her dark blue jacket. Really now…she’d think to be more organized this time around. Some things just don’t change, do they?

She grabbed her blanket and wrapped it around her as if it were a robe and got off the bed, nearly stumbling from her nigh omniscient fatigue. Her stomach’s growling ability finally cooled down, with her “naptime” as her timer, and growled in hunger it did. She sighed; she at least wanted to play a quick 100 Splatoon matches and 200 Pokemon HeartGold Nuzlockes to pass the time. But nope, her needs as a human being came first, topping off everything else.

In fact, she could even hear “his” voice absconding away from her mind, protesting their opposition towards her unhealthy habits.

With cold legs and the sniffles, she shuffled and weaved her way out of the clutter of cartridges, consoles, wires and CDs and out of the room. It was even colder out than inside…

* * *

The day droned on continuously – as continuously as Chiaki’s gesture of sipping the warm milk out of cereal bowl, gushing the loops of cereal down her cold sore throat and into her ravenous belly. She let out a quiet sneeze into her blanket and went into a coughing fit, sniffling a bit to flush down her clogged snotty nose. She continued to shiver and hug herself with the blanket, at a loss on what to do next…

_…right, I should pack things up._

Chiaki picked up her bowl and spoon and rinsed it in the sink. She flinched from the sudden frozen touch of the rushing water so she made quick work of her current task. While she was rinsing the bowl and spoon, she caught wind of the spiral-like tower of unclean square plates stacked beside the sink she was currently using. She blinked her eyes and shook her head, resuming in her current task. She’ll do those at a later time…maybe during lunchtime? She shrugged.

After she was done, she wiped the bowl slowly with her blanket. She then dragged her finger inside it, taking note of the squeaky sound that came thereafter before placing it back in the dish rack alongside the rest of the bowls that will never see any use in the near future…or at all, she thinks. She gave the spiral tower of chinaware a shameful look before leaving for her homey little cave she called her “spawn point”.

As she arrived, she closed the door and locked it. Setting up the atmosphere was pretty easy-peasy-lemon-squeesy ( _was that how the saying went?_ ); all she had to do was to draw the curtain blinds shut and switch off the lamp. The cold overcast outside gave an environmental bonus to her motivation…or so she thinks – it just made her sleepier, if not accentuated by the fact that she yawned right after she drew the curtains shut. Even so, she still wanted to play some games.

She picked up her two consoles nearby and booted up Pokemon HeartGold. Although her whole body screamed languid and fatigued, her hands were anything but. She sped through the menu selection screen, dialogue, name selection screen, and all that fun stuff. As her starter, she chose Totodile without any second thought and played the game as usual. Time passed by quickly as fast as the running shoes equipped by her avatar, Lyra, aptly named “A”. She certainly didn’t waste any time either getting her starter to evolve.

Hours ticked by and she had gotten through the game at least 4 times by now, with her starter changing every playthrough. She mixed up her experience with multiple challenges to squeeze out the fun that the game had to offer; even though, admittedly, it wasn’t much. More hours ticked by, and the gradual darkening of the room told her that the afternoon sun was already setting. She hasn’t moved an inch during the whole time she laid on her stomach, playing 10 tedious rounds of HeartGold. Just as she was going to start her 11th and probably last Nuzlocke for today, she heard the pager outside ring. _Now that was a first._ She doesn’t remember getting a memo about any visitors today, as rare as people even visit her anyway…

_Not even—_

The pager continued to ring for her. Curiosity got the better of her so she wrapped the blanket around herself again and walked as fast as she can to see whoever they were. She stood on her tiptoes to gaze through the peephole as soon as she arrived by the door. On the other side of the door, she saw two familiar friends, one of them scratching the back of his head once he took off his hood and the other crossing her arms and sporting a patient face… _well, that’s all I can really gather from her stoic expression really…_

Just before any of them could ring her with the pager again, she unlocked the door and pulled it open. Naegi and Kirigiri smiled warmly as she welcomed them in…well, it was superficial as it crumbled to a look of concern, especially from Naegi. “Good evening…? Hwaaaaaaangh…you two…” Chiaki rubbed her eyes as she greeted them, “…I didn’t know you…were gonna visit…”

“Nanami-san, allow me to be blunt with you.” Kirigiri piped in, adjusting her gloves near the cuffs of her maroon snow coat. “You sound _horrible_.”

“…Have you been well, Nanami-san?” Naegi asked with a worried look.

Chiaki covered her nose with her blanket and sucked up her snot, wiping some that may have flooded out of her nose. “Yep… I’ve been taking my cold medicine…I think…maybe— Achoo!” She quickly brought her arm up and sneezed on it instead before hiding it behind her blanket robe. She then stepped back. “…You can come in.”

Great, now the pair doubted her words. They walked in and took off their footwear, only leaving their socks on, and left them beside the door as they closed it to bar the cold from entering. Kirigiri wasted no time in getting straight to business. “I can tell if you’re lying…or downplaying things. Either interpretation isn’t like you at all.”

“Downplaying…hmm, I guess I have. Sorry, Kirigiri…” Chiaki continued to wrap the blanket more around her. “…I’ve been…umm, I don’t know how to describe it…”

“B-Before that,” Naegi spoke up, “we should sit down. That way we’ll be comfortable, ok?”

“Oops…I forgot.” Chiaki nodded. She made her way towards the couch in the living room just beside the dining room, signaling for the others to follow her. Kirigiri sat down on the couch on the other side of the small table that separated them from Chiaki patted the space next to her for Naegi to sit, to which he followed. He grasped her gloved hand as he sat down next to her. The gamer tried to look at her own freezing hands under her robe.

Naegi cleared his throat before speaking up. “So, really…were you alright these past couple of days, Nanami-san? I mean…we used to see you at the usual spot in the park before you stopped showing up altogether. We kinda thought that you were busy since Christmas was just around the corner.”

Chiaki remained mum, but her somber face seemed clear enough an answer.

“…Your classmates were worried about your inactivity too. It was only now they told me about that. The last they heard from you was your notice during Tanaka-kun’s birthday. So if there’s anything wrong, please tell us. We’re worried about you as well…”

While Naegi talked, Chiaki tried to draw her eyes away from Kirigiri’s studious eyes. _Independence…_ That word rang in her head the more she listened to him talk. She had to be _independent someday._ Still, wouldn’t it be so easy to confess right now? To admit that her reasons were too petty a reason to justify absence from the care of her friends?

“Whatever reason you’ll say, we’ll understand, Nanami-san.”

_Huh?_

Chiaki looked up from her hands and towards the pair.

“I don’t want to assume things and I’d rather much hear it from you.” Kirigiri stated, reassuringly. “I trust your reasoning, Nanami-san.”

She slumped down and sighed. “…I just…miss him. Hajime, I mean…” She dragged her hand across her nostrils as she sniffled. “I know it’s only been two weeks…but it’s not the same without him…I think. It’s like playing a two-part game – it’s not fun without the other. Besides…it’s not like I want to give him a hard time too. He works hard for us both and…well…I can’t even take care of myself properly, can I? My reliability stat’s too low…” Chiaki didn’t laugh at the last part. It would’ve made things a lot worse than it already is; kicking herself won’t get her anywhere good.

Kirigiri closed her eyes and hummed. It sounded like she knew that already. “I see…” She then looked at Naegi. “…then you understand that you need some company, right? You said so yourself. After all, what are friends if they can’t help their own friend in need?”

Naegi smiles in understanding. Of course he would be excited to help whenever he can. Chiaki let out a slight smile in response to their offer. “Yeah…saying no wouldn’t help, right?”

“Naturally.” Kirigiri smirked.

Chiaki then stood up and hugged the pair as tightly as she can. The two flinched from the cold touch but before long, she felt their warmth envelop her – that warmth that she sought out. She then released the hug and her smile grew, seeming less forced than before. “Well we can start by…”

* * *

The dawn of Christmas Day arrived, heralded by the tweeting of freezing birds and the warm orange hue flooding the small patches of grass. Unlike like any other day, the cold atmosphere hardly called for an energetic nor enthusiastic day; it invited one to enter a deep period of slumber – or what others call “a gamer’s hibernation”. Sleep…sleep… _just sleep the day away till you can no longer sleep…_

…now wouldn’t it be nice if people were granted that for once, even for a Christmas gift?

Hajime, sporting a thick jacket and a long scarf as he made his way to the front door of the house, carried a medium-sized newly wrapped dark turquoise gift box with small white dashes as its design and a pink ribbon with gold foil outlining its edges to top it all off. He adjusted his beanie to make it easier to remove, now that he was away from people who could just pull it out of his head and book it to next town, and rang the doorbell.

Hajime smiled in anticipation. He can’t wait to see the look on her face once she sees him!

Actually, wait…

_OH CRAP! SHE’LL BE MAD!_

While he waited, he frantically prepared his not-so-little apology spiel to Chiaki. He really needed to think more about how his actions affected the feelings of others. His grip on his gift box strengthened and so too did his anger and disappointment towards his stupidity. He really didn’t deserve any slack for being so narrow and short-minded on his goals. Time and time again and with her leniency tugging at the guilt in his heart and mind, Chiaki reminded him of this fact.

In fact, he could already hear her voice reprimanding him as soon as that door opens. Even though he already gets enough of that from K—

_*click*_

Well, speak of the devil it’s actually her…

“Kirigiri?! What are you—mmph!?” The detective immediately gagged his mouth with her gloved hand and forcefully pulled him inside the house. Trying to escape a trained detective like her was a freaking bad idea. Never mind that! Her glove oddly smelled of foil and… _leaves_?

“Keep quiet.” She then used her foot to close the door and quickly used her other hand to lock it. “You do know you have a lot of explaining to do, right?”

Hajime helplessly nodded.

Kirigiri continued to drag him off around the living room. Just what the heck is she planning? “Alright, here’s what happened…”

* * *

Chiaki’s “spawn point” went through a severe change, now looking more haven-ly for the two people playing some Tekken than before. The gamer looked more energetic and enthusiatic as well, no longer in her blanket robe – she wore her comfortable winter cardigan that went with her cat hood. To describe her more aptly, she was like a large cat on her bed who enjoyed thoroughly kicking Naegi’s butt with Alisa. The other couldn’t care less about the fact that constantly lost; just as long as Chiaki had her fun, he was happy.

“Looks like I lost again,” said Naegi with a laugh, “you just couldn’t let me win one match, could you?”

“That’s not how I play, Naegi.” she replied with a smile, putting the console down. “It’s much better when we give it our all and achieve victory. The rewards feel more satisfying that way…I think.”

“You’re right. I’ve played with pros who don’t act the way you do, throwing the game just to “make me feel better”…it just doesn’t feel right. Hmm, “genuine” sounds better probably…”

Chiaki hummed, rolling over on her back. “…Thanks again for this, Naegi.”

“Don’t mention it! We just want to help a friend out!”

“That makes me glad but…” she slid off her bed, landing beside Naegi, “…I just wish Hajime was here with us today. Without him, I couldn’t beat the teamwork between you and Kirigiri, y’know? You two are just that good together.”

Naegi let out a goofy smile as he flailed his hands around. “I-It’s Kyoko who’s doing everything…! I mean…I don’t know what I’ll do without her. She’s so pretty, reliable and smart…I think I could gush over her all day but she’s also scary. Then again, I understand if it’s to set me straight. I trust her.”

“…I could say the same with Hajime too.” Chiaki blushed as she thought about the many memories she had with Hajime. “He may come off as snarky and irritable but he’s pretty dependable when it comes down to it. He’s hard on himself sometimes too that it worries me. Still, he’s such a sweet and nice guy with a gentle heart, kinda like those protagonists in RPGs who come to save the day and look awesome while they do it!”

“I hope you’re not treating this as a competition, Nanami-san…”

They both laughed awkwardly. It really did seem that way, didn’t it? “…I still think you two are good together. You love Kirigiri. I love Hajime. There’s no need to compare just how much we love our significant other, right? There’s no need to invalidate anything. I wouldn’t want to lose our friendship over something so pointless…”

“Right you are on that.” His smile then fell to a pensive expression. “Speaking of Kirigiri, what’s taking her so long?”

“She just went to answer the door, right?”

“…We should check. Just in case.”

“Right…”

After turning the consoles off and returning them on the bed, the two stood up and went out of the room. The two could hear some hushed-down conversation between Kirigiri and some other guy’s voice she couldn’t decipher. Naegi let out a sigh of relief. Poor Naegi, he was really worried for her too. After all, detectives, Kirigiri specifically, tended to live life on the edge.

Chiaki then whispered, “Let’s go take a peek, Naegi.”

“I-I don’t think we should…it sounds important for them…”

The allure of the man’s voice tugged at the back of her mind. She knew that she just had to check. “We’ll just see what’s up for a little. It won’t hurt…probably.”

“You’re not helping your case here…”

Chiaki puffed her cheeks out at Naegi, mustering up a frown and a glare at him.

“Umm, alright! Alright! But only just a bit, ok?”

“That’s what I said, right?”

The pair tiptoed around the hallway and headed towards their voices were. Weirdly though, their voices turned quieter as the two pressed on. Were they straying away from the voices? She didn’t understand…that’s not how sounds were supposed to work, or so she thinks.

Chiaki looked to her left to check the living room, while Naegi followed suit, and noticed the familiar brown spike of hair sticking out from someone’s head. His back may have been turned but she couldn’t mistake it. There he was, staying precariously near the vicinity of the mistletoe hung up not so long ago, talking to Kirigiri about something; but she was more focused on Hajime. When did he arrive? What took him so long? Can she kiss him? Was this a dream? _Way too many questions…_

“Sorry in advance, Nanami-san…!”

Suddenly, she was shoved from behind, too weak to make her fall to the ground actually. She yelped as she stumbled out to the living room, hitting something solid— Ah, Hajime! She looked up, confused, and as if he teleported, they were suddenly standing face-to-face. Hajime just looked as confused and shocked as she was. They both looked to their side and noticed that Kirigiri was standing there, now away from them, looking satisfied that things went to whatever plan she concocted. They then looked back to each other.

“Ch-Chiaki…I…” His face glowed a deep bright shade of red, at a loss of words.

“You can do “it” in front of us. After all, _you two are under the mistletoe_.” said Kirigiri.

Chiaki didn’t need to look up nor be told to do so. While standing on her tiptoes, she pulled Hajime into a kiss, closing her eyes and letting her lips melt into his. It tasted as sweet as the first time they kissed. She couldn’t help but cry tears of joy from seeing him again! She missed him. _I miss him so much._

Not once did Hajime try to struggle away from the kiss; he fell into it just as quick too. Neither wanted to let the other go, not even for the slightest of moments both in fear and in an imminent desire. The taller boy caressed the back of his girlfriend’s neck, hugging the other close to him. All self-deprecating thoughts of never deserving this surprise vanished without a trace; the euphoria he felt eroded those eroding feelings into itty-bitty pieces of forgettable gray matter, too small to be given attention to. What mattered now, was the _now_.

_Right now, I want to be in this moment. I want to live here and make up for those lost days, lost games and lost feelings. I want to wish myself a Merry Christmas and enjoy this gift for myself._

_I deserve this…_


End file.
